Talks - Discouragement on the Path

Discouragement on the Path

Discouragement on the Path

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
, 1999-01-29

Today Gurudeva talks about discouragement on the path, how to recognize it, why it happens and how not to succumb to the feelings of giving up, of things being too difficult, or of being overtly discouraged from friends or relatives from persuing the spiritual path in your life.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam, January 29th. Here we are again, looking at each other through cyberspace.

Have you ever thought what someone did when they ask, "What is the greatest barrier on the spiritual path?"

Well, we have enemies inside of us, lurking. One is the inability to make a decision and stay with it, and discouragement. In most of the religions of the world, when someone wants to be a religious leader, a missionary, a minister or a priest, the whole community gathers around and says to one another, "What did we do in our community to produce a soul like this? He wants to be a priest, he wants to be a minister. He wants to be a spiritual leader."

However in Hinduism, when a young man wants to be a spiritual leader, a Swami, a minister or a priest, the whole community gathers together and says, "How can we discourage him?" He can be a drunkard. He can be an engineer. He can be a computer expert and sit in front of that dumb machine, hours and hours and hours a day. Sometimes 14 hours a day, with no rest. A doctor. But no, not a Hindu priest, not a Hindu swami. "What did we do to not deserve a doctor in our family? What did we do to not deserve an engineer in our family?" The whole family and the neighbors gather around tries to discourage the young man, drive him anywhere, to suicidal thoughts, try to discourage him and bring up the enemy within him of discouragement.

If this young man or woman wants to be on the spiritual path, it is up to them to claim that path for themselves. Turn their back on the negative community and prove themselves. Finally, the negative community will be a positive community and will be touching their feet. That is the way it is and that is the way it is!

I have given many lectures on this around the world. As a spiritual leader myself, there are times when there are those who will come to try to discourage your efforts. What do I do? I take that negative energy and I turn it into a positive energy and do something positive with it.

In business life, in the theatrical life, in religious life, in all walks of life there is an enemy that can be awakened in everyone and that is discouragement. But there is the spirit also that can be awakened within everyone and that is the spiritual force that gets the idea in the person's head, that carries that idea through and manifests a positive creation for family and friends and relations, the entire community, the world at large.

If there are Hindus listening today, and if you have young men in your family, if you have young girls in your family who want to be spiritual leaders, there are schools. There are ashrams that will train these young people to be outstanding.

How many mendicant swamis, sadhus, yogis, rishis, do we have in the world today? It is estimated three million and we still need more. There are communities like the Gujarati community, the Swaminarayan Fellowship has six hundred and fifty two Sadhus wearing orange robes. Actually, we had the number '652' come with an elder Swami, their youngest one, here to visit us for a few days, here at Kauai Aadheenam.

Think about this. Encourage spirituality because spirituality is uplifting. It is a magic which no other magic can compare to. It comes from the soul.

Be back tomorrow for more!

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Are we ready for the final journey life has to offer? Are we prepared to endure the hardships of sadhana, to suffer the death of the ego? Or would we prefer more pleasures in the world of "I" and "mine?"